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INCLUDING ITS 


BT YMOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, 


AND 


BIBLIOGRAPHY, 


Hew-Hork ; 


THADDEUS OAVIOS § CO. 
127 William Street. 


Printers, 
63 Cortlandt St. N.Y. 


Bhe Bistory of Gok. 


> 


NK os history, in the commen 
acceptation of the word, for, 
Pee what x generally denominated 
Wine. Aistory—is ink diffused on 
a ; fhaper in certain definite lines. SUfet 

ma” ink has no history uritten of com- 
hosed hitherto. In weuw of this 

y = defictencu—uhich betrays a sinqular 
neqliqence (on the part of histosians and 
all literary. men) and a thoughtless. inqrat- 
tude to this tndishensalile means of accom- 
plishing and frreseruing thew worle—iue 
frrofrase ta supply the desideratum, ly 
furnishing, on these little pages, what 1s 
indicated ly the akoue title, in the fullest 
sense and uudest scope of the term, imelud- 
ing tts etymoloqy, tts chemistry, and all 
that can te suqqested and justified ly 
the title, or fairly. demanded under it, or 
claimed from. tt. 


6 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


The qreat common error of general his- 
forians, ancient and medern, (uuth a uery 
feu exceptions amang the maderns,) has 
heen, that they haue qiuen ta the world 
little else than narrations and descriptions 
of wars and treaties, of qouernmental 
changes. and political euents, omitting. to 
KFecord the often far more unprortant facts 
in the history of literature, science, and the 
arts. of utility, ly uthich the progress. of 
cunlization and the deuelefment of the 
human race in tts higher capacities haue 
been effected of aided. The qreat “ In- 
staurator of the Fcetences”’ was the first 
ta call attention to these omissions and 
deficiencies in. all fprewious. histories, and ta 
indicate the duty of historians ta auaid 
these errors,—setting a qood example in 
that respect, in the sfecumen, of model 
work, uthich he produced as a pattern,— 
his history. of the reiqn of SHtenry. the 
Seventh. Fince his time, many sfectal 
histories of tnuentions and of the arts of 
utility. haue teen uritten; and the numer- 
ous. cyclopaedists haue larqely contriluted 
to- this alyect; still, howeuer, leaving many 
vacancies. to le filled in this department of: 
human knouledqe, of uthich the one tefore 
us can not le considered the least worthy 
of the lator needful for its tnuestiqation. 


THR HISTORY OF INK. 7 


DEFINITION. 


The word INK has teen variously defined 
by lexicographers, cyclopaedists and chem- 
ists; but the follouung terms may le taken 
as fully expressing the cammon qualities 
and essential shectfic characteristics of all 
sulsstances. tncluded under the name. 

Ink ts a colored lguid employed in 
making. lines, characters of fiqures on. siur- 
faces. capalie of retaining the marks. se 
made. Dhe §¢neyclopaedia Hritannica, 
(uol. xt. p. 382, 78 5b,) qives the follou- 
ing. definition: “INK—TDhe term ink ts 
usually restricted to. the fluid employed in 
writing uth a fen. Other kinds of ink 
are indicated ly. a second word, such as 
red ink, Sndian ink, marking. ink, sym- 
pathetic ink, printers’ ink, ete. Yommon 
inke ts, howeuer, sometimes. distinguished 
as. writing ink.” 

sts to coLOR—lachk ts and has aluays 
been preferred in ordinary uses. Gor 
ornamental purposes and for occasionally 
useful distinctions, uarious. other tints 
haue teen and are adofited—as. tlue, red, 
qreen, purple, uiolet, yelloun—and so. on, 
according. to the fancy. of the maker, oF 
furchaser, of consumer, 

Fhe sulistance employed ta receiue and 
fireserue the marks thus made ts nou: 


g THE HISTORY OF INK. 


almost un.uersally Paper. Parchment is 
still used in many. leqal documents and 
writings of form and ceremony. /Gotton, 
linen and silk, when wouen tnte falsics for 
qarments and like uses, are also sulyected 
ta marks of ink for the purpose of tden- 
Lifying property. Fa ate wooden and 
leathern surfaces in similar conditions. Ft 
ts also employed tn uuiting on stone, tn 
the quite modern art of lithography. 

Though tts qreat ortqinal and con- 
tinualemployment ts in uriting, t must le 
Fememlered that tt ts also larqely used in 
the delineation of olyects ly artists. —Inke 
and fraint are mutually conuertille ta each 
others. uses, Lut are yet so distinct in char- 
acter and alyects, that no one reqards the 
words as synonymous, and no precise defi- 
nition tw needed ta teach the distinction 
hetureen them. ss, for instance, tn fen- 
and-ink. drawings and sketches, the ink 
serues. the purhose af paint. Fa lkeuuse 
in. the letters on siqn-laards, Xtc. paint may 
be cansidered as a sulstitute for ink. The 
artist utha traces his name on the canvas 
in. a. co¥ner of his. painting, employs paint 
ina siunilark manner. Printing-ink. ts used 
as black faint. _$n the lest red inks, car- 
mine (a fraint in. water-colors) ts the essen- 
lial ingredient. Indian Snk 1s used here 
only as paint,—in fghina, as ink. 


THER HISTORY OF INK. 9 


ETYMOLOGY. 


The deruation of the ¢nglish word 
“nk,” and of ts refpresentatiues. in. uaKLOUs 
ackbere lanquaqes, has. caused much per- 
plexity. to philologists, and has teen the 
sulyect of many er*Kaneaus congectures. We 
suffix the names ly uhich it ts knewn in 
those nations utha haue most employed tt: 


finglish, ; Ink. 
Low-(Dutch, ‘MedentDuytgols ticki acalieAtes : Inkt 
German or Weutsch, Denes and “inte. 
Old German, . fnker, J Pinot Tinta and Dinde. 


- ager Ae Blaek, (India Ink, Tusch ) 
. ? 


Swedish, ’ .  Blaeck, (India Ink, Tusk.) 
french, . Hinecre. 
Old French, : : Finque. 
Italian, : : . Inchtostro. 
Spanish, ; : Tinta. 
Portuguese, , . . Tinta. 
lliyrian, ; ‘ . Ingvas. 
Polish, 5 ; ; Incaust. 
Sasque, : Coransia. 
Latin, ; . fAltramentum. 
Medical Leta . ee ; Lincaustum. 
Greek, : ; Melan. 
Seb. ; ; ; WD’ yo. 
Chaldee, : N kaso. 
#rabic, Nikson, inghas. 
Persian, ee S’y’ah’'o. 
Hindustani, S’yaho, Fron ts tey, eon) shira, mas, 
and Hindut, murakkat, aie midad. 
Sanscrit, Kalt, Biddy) 


Armenian, : : Syuaghin. 


10 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


MWe might amuse ourselues ly extend- 
ing this talular list indefinitely. Gnough, 
howeuer, has teen already. shoun to. tllus- 
trate a feu remarkalle facts uhich we uush 
to. fresent that are connected uuth the 
etymology. of our sulyect ; but we present 
a page of Lithographic dlustrations which 
ull enalle any “curious reader” to trace 
the word further. 

Neo dictionary of the gnqlish lanquage 
qines usany help or light about the matter. 
| Welister suqqests “inchiostro,” (the Stalian 
word,) as the source of derimation,; and 
all the Stalan lexicoqraphers. aqree that 
inchiostro ts from the later Latin ENCAUSTUM, 
uthich ts tn fact 4G.V-eele y Evyxavdrov, ( ¢neauston re) 
“burned-in oF corroded.” G¢neaustum became 
corrupted inta “ enchaustrum,” from which 
the transition to. “inchiostro,” is ly the req- 
ular form of deriuation from the Latin to 
the Stalian,—the £ before a vowel qiuing 
flace to.a short $—as “piano” from PLANnus. 
(The cu, in Stalian ts always sounded 
hard, like the Gnqlish #.) 

Leaving. the French word encre, as on 
the middle qround letween different ety- 
moloqies, and affording no light etther 
way,—wue find the Spantsh and Portu- 
qese “tinta,” and the German (a lanquage 
uudely remote from those of the Skerran 
freninsula in otiqin and affinities) “ dinte, 


THE HISTORY OF INE. ts 


tinte and tincta,” foreildy reminding. us of: 
the Latin participle TINCTUS, TINCTA, TINC- 
tum, from the uerl TINGO, uthich ts refpre- 
sented in g¢nqlish ty tinee, and other 
derivatives, such as “tincture,” &e. SWe 
cannot refuse ta recaqnize the Solland- 
Dutch “Inkt” as from the same root 
to uhich we haue thus traced the cortes- 
fronding word in a lanquage which we 
may. call its “cousin-,German ,” and tt 
ts hard to exclude the Old French. “ Enque’’ 
and modern “ Encre”’ from this circle of 
telationship. 

Then, we are sameuhat impressed lay 
the discauery. of the word Ingvas in the 
Sllysian, a lanquage of the Slavonie (or 
more properly Flouente) stock, like the 
Polish,—and, like that, enriched ly words 
dertued from the Latin. Dhe Polish, 
haweuer, presents us with the actual 
4taeco-Latin. Encaustrum. 

Still more remote from the Gnqlish and 
Stalian, we find among the Ortentals of 
the Shemitish race, ANGHAS and NIKSON in 
the straluc, and wkAsHo in the <¢haldee, 
uth a manifest resemldance in sound, and 
uuth an actual pessession of the same ele- 
ments and radical letters, NM. KF. Yet 
we da not think of suqqesting that these 
words. had a commen oriqin uuth the cor- 
resfronding. ones in Guropean Sanquages, 


42 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


though so nearly coincident in sound. _Dhe 
case 1s sumfly one of accidental Kesem- 
Llance, a remarkalle coincidence,—(lkecause 
occurring. at three different and remote 
froints,) tut yet a cotnetdence not uholly 
unparalelled, 

The protatulity ts that the Gnqlish ward, 
like the Dutch, German, Fpansh, Xec., came 
from the Latin tinctum, but t may be left 
“an ofren question,” for if we had not these 
instances. ta. direct the formation of eur 
ofinions, ute should haue no hesitation in 
acknoutledqing the Stalian Inchiostro as the 
true ETYMON; just as, tf we had nether of 
these in. weut, we might suspect the origin 
of our uord to be in the Cxental ANGHAS oF 
NIKSON. 

The ¢thiopic KALAMA at first sight af- 

ears to le related to the Hindustant KALI; 
hut the latter is merely the word in.all the 
lanquagqes of Hindustan for tlack,—while 
the former ts tut a modification of the Greek 
and Latin CALAMUS, a reed oF fren,—the in- 
sttument (naturally. enough) qwiwing its 
name to the liguid which was essential to 
ws use. 

The word ENCAUSTUM connects, in a wery, 
interesting and instructine manner, both 
uuth the history and the chemistry ot man- 
ufacture of our modern inks, and 1s a satis- 
factery demonstration of the utility of such 


THER HISTORY OF INK. 13 


elymoloqical researches as those tn uhich 
we haue teen here tndulqing. 

Fhe one qreat distinction- between the 
ancient and the modern tnks.ts this: Dhe 
ald inks. were PAINTS; the writing inks nou 
in use ly all nations (excepting those of 
Southern stsia) are pves. Dhat ts the 
whole difference. 

St would te well to que a definition of 
limitation of the words “<tnctent” and 
“ Modern.” No ane has done tt hitherto. 
MWe uull not attempt to fix the poimt prre- 
cisely, Lut may reasonally say that the pe- 
trod intervening lLetueen September, A.D. 
470, (uhen Stome was taken ly Avaric and 
his Wtsiqoths) and Decemler 25, Ht. D. 
S00, (when Harlthe Great, otheruusecalled 
/(Ghatlemaqne, was crowned in SRome ly 
Pape Leo uth the title of Gmperor of the 
Stoly Roman Fmpwre) contains the tnterual 
betureen antiguuty and modern times. 

— Dheintroduction of Paperasthecommon 

material ufron uthich siqnificant characters 
were to le marked, must have had a qreat 
aqency in frroducing a change in the com- 
frasition of the liguid employed in making 
the marks. 

Parcument was the sulkstance in use, 
among allthe Guropean nations, as the sul- 
stratum of manuscript, fromthe tume uzhen 
the ¢quptian papyrus ucent aut of fashion. 


14 THE HISTORY OF INK 


Roth the parchment and the papyrus 
were uritten ufron, ly Romans, Greeks and 
Seliveus, uth pens made of small reeds, 
dipped in a fluid composed of carbon, (nat 
dissolued, hut) held in a state of suspension 
Ly an aul et a solution of qum. : 

The letters were orrqinally painted on 
the surface of the papyrus, parchment, 
hoard, oF other material so employed—the 
inte not being unlubed oF aksorked ly 
the sulistance on uhich tt was shed, tut 
remand on the surface, capatle of being 
Kemoued ly usashing, scraping, ruldung, 
oF any sunilar process. Dhe surface 
thus cleansed was then in a state. to 
receie a new. inscription; so that erasions 
and inscriptions might te indefinitely 
repeated upon tt, as upon a modern siqn- 
Loard., 

Movern Ink, on the contrary, leaues tts 
marks upon paper, parchment, &c., ly pen- 
etrating the material to such a depth that 
tL cannot be erased (mechanically) uuthout 
the remoual of destruction of the surface 
uthich tt has tinged. fhemtical aqency,as of 
various acids, chlorine and its compounds, 
is qenerally employed, therefore, ta dis- 
charqe the color from modern writing-ink- 
marks, CaArBoN, tn all its common forms, 
(charcoal, lutuminous ceal, anthracite, fet, 


flumbago, lanite, wory-llack, lamp-llack 


THE HISTORY OF INK. 15 


and soot,) ts utholly unalteralde in color ly 
any of these chemical means. 

Printine Ink (uthich ts composed of car- 
ton suspended tn. a drying oil) 18, in essential 
characteristics, identical uuth the uriting- 
inks of the anctent Shomans and /Greeks. 
St is infressed upon the surface of paper, 
(that which ts unsized oF ltulalous teing 
commonly preferred,) and ts retained un- 
changed ly the action of moisture, on ac- 
count of the insolululity of the carten and 
the refuulsion letueen oil and water, These 
tuo. forms of ink. are therefore the exact 
opposites of each other, in the qualities on 
uthich ther use and permanence depend. 
TDhe most iunfrortant freculiarity O £ the 
modern writing-ink, as contrasted uuth the 
ancient, naturally suqqested the tua names 
which tt lore in the Latinand Greek of the 
middle aqes, or (to speak. mare definitely,) 
the time af ds tnuention and first employ- 
ment. —_St uas a Tincta, @ DYE, oF STAIN, 
uthich tinged and tinctured the material en 
uthich wt was placed, entering among tts 
files as. coloring fluids do tnto cloth in the 
ordinary. processes. of manufacture. _St 
frenetrated the sulistance of the paper (as 
caustics of powerful chemical soluents and 
corrosiues. act on the orqane filre): tt bit in, 
ot burned in,—and was therefore urell named 
ENCAUSTON and Incaustum. 


16 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


CHEMISTRY or COMPOSITION of INK. 


We do not propose to furnish rectfes, 
prescriptions, directions af instructions for 
the manufacture of this article. No mere 
statement in words can enalle any one to 
arriuue at frerfection, or excellence, oF prac- 
tical success inthe production of this article, 
orany articles whatsoever, tskilland care- 
fulness, uthich can te acgutred only ly long 
and laborious. experience, are tndispensalde 
to. the management of the various pro- 
cesses. Jime ws an essential element of 
success in. this freculiar art, and that 
makes. alsolutely requisite also, tuto other 
conditions,—patience and capital. We shall . 
therefore le lrtef on. this. point,—referring 
those who uush for minute detatls, ta the 
cyclopaedias, dictionaries of the arts and 
sciences, and the larger works on practt- 
cal chemistry. —Dhe follouung we uenture 
to. present as the mast correct account of 
this. sulyect, dertued from the latest scien- 
tific and practical authorities. 

The composition of ink. varies. according 
fo its colors, and the purposes to which 
it 1s to ke appled. 

COMMON BLACK WRITING-INK 1s the tannate 
of the sesquoxyd of! tron mixed uuth a 


smaller quantity of the qallate of the 


THER HISTORY OF INE. LF 


sesquoxyd of ton. /When in the lgud 
form, tt ts qenerally the tannate and qal- 
late of the protoxyd; tut after lemng long 
heft, (ot put on the paperand drying there, ) 
it alsorls. more oxyqen from the atmos- 
phere; and thus the saline compounds. le- 
come the per-tannate and per-qallate, uhich 
are llacker than the tannate and qallate of 
the protoxyd. St ts thus and therefore 
that qood modern inte is. kneun ly the sim- 
fle test-gquality of darkening ly age. Cn 
the other hand, when writing Lecomes. yel- 
lou, pale or indistinct ly age, it ts from 
the decay. of the unperfectly comluned ueqe- 
talle astringent,—the marks. an the paper 
oF farchment tend then little more than 
the stain of the per-oxyd (that 1s the ses- 
guoxyd) of tron. Sf the written surface 
he then carefully washed oF even moistened 
with the wmfusion of nut-qalls, t uull be 
-endered llacker, and tf lefore indistinct will 
hecome leqille. This. may. sametimes le 
Letter accomplished ly furst applying a 
weak. solution of oxalic acid of very dilute 
murtatic (hydro-chlaric) acid, and then deli- 
cately laying on the infusion of qalls. 

NWWhen the uriting paper has teen made 
of infertor raqs, lleached uuth chlorine, the 
best inke used upon tt ts Laldle to tecome 
discolored. 

Nut-qalls or qall-nuts (Galle-tinctorie) 


18 THH HISTORY OF INK. 


are excrescences qrouunqg upon the leaues 
or tugs of oak trees, (especially the Quercus 
infectoria,) caused ly the fpuncture of an in- 
sect (the Cynips galle-tinctoria) which de- 
posits its eqqs in the perforations thus 
made. The Quercus infectoria ts mast alkun- 
dant in Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria and 
stsia_flinor, from uhich countries the qalls 
are lrought in large quantities ta the man- 
ufactories of Gurope and slmerica. The 
lest are called “Atepro qalls,” from the 
name of the Fyr.an city uhich ts the chief 
oriqinal market for them. Those from 
Imuyrna are also highly esteemed. . 
They contamn the ueqetalle astringent 
principle called tannin in. qreater alundance 
than any other knoun substance. This ts 
chemically resolued inte the acids knoun 
as the tannicand qallic. stllthe uoods and 
harks employed in the manufacture of 
leather by the tanning of hides contain this 
astringent matter in various degrees. The 
oak and the hemlock, for stance, are in 
extensine and familiar use for this. purpose 
in the Stlnited States. The llackness of 
ink, as has. teen already indicated, 1s deriued 
from the comlunation of these two acids 
with oxydized uon im saline compounds 
uthich. are tnsolulle in water, and are there- 
fore precipitated ar deposited at the lat- 
tom of the fluid, unless held mechanically 


Ps Toby OR. TNE, 19 


susfrended in tt, lag qum, sugar of some 
sumtlar sulistance uthich quues the quality 
of wscdity to Hs solutions, 

The follouung uull serie asa qood form- 
ila for making common ink, and uull te 
enough ta que an tdea of the ordinary 
and qeneral mode of ts composition :— 
“ Fake of stleppo qalls finely trused, six 
aunces,—silphate of ton, four ounces,— 
qum straluc, four ounces,—water, tx fints. 
Fhoul the qalls in the water for akout two 
hours, occasionally adding water ta supply 
the loss from evaporation ; then add the 
other ingredients» and keep the uhole for 
tuto. months in a utooden cr glass ues- 
sel, uthich ts ta te shaken at interiuals. 
Then strain the mk inte qlass tottles, 
adding a feu: drofis of creosote to. frrewent 
mouldiness.”’ 

Fhesides its property. of vascidity, the 
qum frossesses the frower of preventing 
the inke from leng too fluid: and tt also 
serues. to. protect the weqetalle matter from 
decomposition. The qreat desideratum or 
requisite 1s that the ink should flou: uuth 
perfect freedom from the fren, to allow 
Kapuid usiting, and that tt should adhere ta 
the paper, or “lute tnta tt,” sa as not ta te 
ef facealle ly washing. oF sfanging. The 
qreat defect to. le auotded and prevented ts 
the want of duralulity. The uuviting wk 


20 THE HISTORY OF INE. 


of the ancients ucas. characterized ly qreat 
permanency, Leing. compased of finely fruul- 
uertzed carbon meced uuth a muciaqinous of 
adhesiue Lig uud. L NDIA oF Cuwa Inx is of 
this composition : it 1s formed of lampf-llack 
and size orfineanimmal qlue, uth the inciden- 
taladdttion of perfumes. St ts used infghina 
uth a lush, both for u riting and fainting 
onfGhinesehaper; andit 1s employed in other 
countries. for making drauungs in black and 
uthite,—the different depths of shade leing 
jeroduced ly varying. the deqree of dilution 
“2 usater. 

Snhes of other colors than bait uere AN- 
clently used only fo tfurhoses of oxynamental 
and decoratiwe uriting. In later and pres- 
ent times, red and blue inks have been ex- 
tensiuely employed in ruling account-lLooks 
and other paper for lke uses. +8lue ink, 
uuthin ten or more years fast, has teen, ith 
many, a preferred fluid for common. writing. 

F$lue ink, when ie erly. made, flours uth 
qreat ease aaa Fafudity from the pen, dries 
almost instantly. on Fie paper, and has 
been suftfprosed of ex: jrected tole guiteduralle, 
and unchanqealle in color, under ordinary 
wicissitudes, SVYfet, expertence has demon- 
strated the contrary,—though various and 
well-conttiued chemical comlinations hate 
Leen attempted for the fru ‘jlose. Flue inks 
that change to llack some time after usriting 


THER. HISTORY OF INK. Al 


are very popular. On well-made and high- 
priced paper, and uuth qold pens, such inks, 
if prepared ly qood chemists, may ulti- 
mately proue worthy of the high esteem in 
which they areheld ; tut theiralksolute and 
unchanqealle duralulity is. yet to he tested 
ly. experience, before they can le safely 
employed for writings of permanent ualue, 
and relied on for use in making. records de- 
siqned for preservation and reference during 
a. long. course of years. 

TDhere ts a compound of tichromate of 
frotash and extract of loquood, uhich forms 
a uery. cheap. and conuentent writing fluid. 
Dr, llre pronounces tt “a utle dye.” SYfet tt 
may. haue ts utilities, in localities remote 
from. the centres of cuulization and com- 
merce,—as inthe neu settlements in. uestern 
Stmerica, in ftustralia, &c., and for trau- 
elers in Stfrica, in the strctic and other 
barbarous. of uninhaluted reqions. The 
Jollouung. ts the lest formula uthich. can te 
quuen for this compound ; and we present tt 
onthe highest chemical authority :—“ Dake 
FRichromate of potash, 1-4 0%.—¢atract of 
loqwood T 0%.—foiling water, 7 qallon. 

We haue taken the troulle to que this 
[prescription af formula,because some quacks. 
haue Leen peddling ut all ouer the country, 
at all sorts of prices, varying (according ta 


the credulity. and liberality. of purchasers ) 


93) THE HISTORY OF INK. 


from 350 cents to $250. Ie que it for 
yust uthat it is worth; and that is—exact Luy 
what this toak casts ‘the reader. 


BIBLAG GRAPHY. 


The lonqest and most ualualle passage 
which ure Jind « in the uuritings of any ¢ng- 
lish author, uthe has alluded ta our sulyect, 

is the following , fram “ THE ORIGIN AND 

Progress or Writine, ly Dhomas ststle, 
FG.RS, GAF. he, pp. 209 to 27, 
2d iditiny, Fondon, 7803. 

“Or Inxs. Ink has not only been use- 
ful in all ages, tut still continues aksolutely 
necessarily La the jereseruation and imhroue- 
ment of every art and science, and for con- 
ducting the ordinary. transactions of life. 

“Daily experience shous that the most 
common. alyects: qenerally. fproue mast use- 
ful and Leneficial to. mankind. The con- 
stant occasion ue haue for Ink. evinces its 
conuentence and utility. Brom the tmn- 
frortant benefits AMLSLng. Ta sactely from its 
use, and the myuries induuduals may suffer 
from the frauds of desiqning men in the 
abuse of this necessary article, tt 1s ta be 
uushed that the leqislature would frame 
some Frequlation ta fromote its un fpuroue- 
ment, and prevent knauery and auarice 
[rom ‘jnakeing it insttumental to the accom- 
frlishment of! any. Lase purpose. 


THH HISTORY OF INK. 28 


“ Fimpile as the composition of Ink 
may. be thought, and really is—tt 1s. a fact 
well noun, that we haue at present none 
equal in Leauty. and color to that used lu 
the ancients; as. uull appear ly an inspec- 
tion of many of the manuscripts atoue 
quoted, especially. those written in. ¢nqland 
in. the times of the Saxons. SWhat occa- 
sions sa qreat a disparity? Does tt arise 
from. our tqnorance, oF from aur want of 
materials? From neiTHeR, but from the 
negligence of the present race; as uery. little 
attention would soen demonstrate that we 
want neither skill nor ingredients ta make 
Ink. as. qood nour as. at any former period. 

“ $t 1s an. alyect of the utmast umfart- 
ance that the Shecords of Parliament, the 
Decisions and stdjudications of the ourts 
of fustice, onueyances from man to man, 
Wills, Testaments, and other Instruments 
uhich affect property, should ke written 
uuth Inte of such duralle quality. as may. 
Lest resist the destructine powers of time 
andthe elements. The necessity of paying 
qreater attention to this matter may le 
readily. seen. ly. comparing. the Rolls and 
SRecords. that haue teen uuritten from. the 
fifteenth century. to the end of the seuen- 
teenth, uuth the writings we haue remainin 
of various ages from the fifth to.the twelfth 
century.  _Notuuthstanding. the superior 


2A THH HISTORY OF INE, 


antigutty. of the latter, they. are in excellent 
fireseruation; lut we frequently. find the 
former, though of mare modern date, sa 
much. defaced that they. are scarcely leqille. 

“Inks are of warious sorts, as—encaustic 
oF varmsh, Indian ink, qold and siluer, 
purple, lack, red, qreen, and warious. ether 
colors. Dhere were also secret and sym- 
pathetic Inks. 

“Fhe Ink used ly the ancients had 
nothing wn. common. uuth. ours, lat the color 
and qum. /gall-nuts, copperas and qum 
make uf. the composition of our Ink; 
whereas. scat, of mory-llack, was the chief’ 
ingredient in that of the ancients; sa that 
uery. old charters might le susfected, tf 
written with Ink entirely. sunilar ta uhat 
we use; Lut the mast acute and delicate 
discernment ts necessary inthis matter ; for 
same of the [hlack| Snks formerly used 
were Lialle to fade and decay,and are found 
to. haue turned red, yellous or pale. Those 
inferfections are howeuer rare ut mani 
scrifits prior ta the tenth century. 

“ Dhere 1s a method of reviuing. the uu- 
ting; lut this expedient should not be 
hazatded, lest a suspicion of decett may. 
arise, and the support depended on [le] lost. 

“GoLDEN _Snke was used ly uatious na- 
tions, as may be seen in several llrvaries, 
and in the archines of churches, SILVER 


THE HISTORY OF INK. 25 


Inte was also cammon in most counties. 
SRed Ink, made of uermilion, cinnatar, oF 
purple , us uery frequently found in manu- 
scripts; Lut none are faund written entirely 
uth ink of that color. The ne pee letters, 
in. same, are made uuth a kind of varnish, 
uthich seems to. te camposed of vermilton 
and qum. /Green Ink. ucas rarely. used in 
charters, Lut often in Latin manuscripts, 
eshecially in thase of the latter aqes. The 
quardians of the Greek emperors [or rather 
the Sheqents of the ¢mpuire| made use of: tt 
in. ther siqnatures, till the latter [the 
monarchs. during. minority | tecame of age. 
FRlue or Yellour $nke was seldom used tut 
in. manuscripts. [//!| _Dhe yellow has not 
heen in use, as far as ue can learn, for six 
hundred years. 

“ Metallic and other characters were 
sometimes. turnished. Nl’ax was used as 
auarnish. ly the Latins and Greeles, lut 
much more ty the latter, uuth ushom it 
continued a long time. This cowering of 
varnish uas. uery frequent in the ninth 
century. 

“ Cotor. Dhe color of Ink ts of no qreat 
assistance wm. authenticating manuscripts 
and charters. Therews un my lilrary along 
roll of parchments, at the head of! which is 
a. letter that was carried ouer the qreatest 


fart cf ¢nqland ty twa devout manks, 


26 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


requesting. prayers for Lucia de Vere, 
fgountess. of Oxford, a pious lady, uho died 
m717199,—uho had formed the house \or 
pile of Blenningham in ¢ssex, and 
done many other acts of prety. This roll 
consists of many memlranes or skins of 
farchment sewed together, —all of uthich, 
except the first, cantain certificates from wes 
different reliqious houses that the tuo 
monks. had usited them, and that they had 
ordered prayers. to le offered ufr for the 
fgountess,and had entered her name on theu 
tead-rolls, _#t 1s olserualle that time hath 
had uery. different effects on the various 
inks. uuth which these certificates urere 
uurttten. Fome are as fresh and llack as 
if written yesterday; others are changed 
Lroun, and some are of a yellou hue. St 
mal. naturally Le supposed that there ts a 
qreat uarteti UO ft handuritings upon this ; 

but the fact ts otheruuse, for they may he 
reduced to three. 

“ It may te said im qeneral, that BLACK 
ink, of the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth 
centurtes, at least among the stnqlo-Saxons, 
pureserues its original ldackness [therelu 
meaning that its “ form had not lost all tts 
oriqinal brightness’’ | much letter than that 
of succeeding aqes,—noat ellen. excepting the 
sixteenth and sexenteenth, in uhich tt was 


frequently uery lad. Pale ink. very rarely 


THE HISTORY OF INK. 27 


occurs. Lefore the four last centusrres,~— 

“ Peter Cantparius, Professor of Med- 
icine at JVenice, urote a curious. Look con- 
cerning. Ink, uthich ts nou. scarce, though 
there ts an edition of tt printed in London, 
in 1660, quarto. The title is—De Atra- 
mentis cujuscunque generis opus sané novum. 
Hactenus a nemine promulgatum. [A worK 
ACTUALLY NEW, CONCERNING INKS OF EVERY KIND 
WHATSOEVER,—HITHERTO PUBLISHED BY NO ONE. | 
This work, ts. divided into six parts. The 
Jirst treats qenerally. of Inks. made from 
Pyrites, [sulphurets of won and copper,| 
stones and metals. he second treats more 
particularly. of’ Inks made from metals 
and Caixes. [§etter say calces, or, to speak 
chemically, crystallized salts depriued of 
ther “mater of crystallization,” oF cartonic 
acid, ly the action of heat.\—TDhe third 
treats of Inle made from seots and witriols. 
— he fourth treats of the different kinds 
of Inks used ty the librarii ot took-uyiters, 
[ professional scrilies of cafyssts of manu- 
sciipits before the inuention of the art of 
Printing,| as well as ty printers and en- 
qrauers, and ef staining. (of writing. upon) 
martle, stucco or scaqhola, and of! Encaus. 
Tic modes of usiting; as also of lguids 
for painting oF coloring of leather, cloths 
made of linen of wool, and for restoring 
inks that hawe teen defaced ly tune, as 


28 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


likewise many. methods of effacing writing 
—restoring decayed paper—and of various 
modes of secret wriuting.—The fifth part 
treats of Inks for writing, made in differ- 
ent countries, of various materials and 
colors,—as from qums, uoods, the juice of 
plants, &c., and also of different kinds of 
warnishes,— TDhe sixth part treats of the 
warious ofrerations of extracting uttrol, 
and of its chemical uses. 

“ his work abounds uutha qreat variety 
of philosophical, chemical and historical 
kenoutledqe, and uull que qreat entertain- 
ment to. thase utha uush for information on. 
this. sulyect, 

Many curious particulars concerning. 
Inte uull be found in “ Weckerus de Secretis.’’ 
(Printed at SRasle, in 1672, actauo. )— 
This. qentleman also ques receipts for 
malaung. Inks of the color of 4old and 
Piluer, composed as utell uuth those mate- 
rials as utthout them,—alsa, directions for 
making a wariety. of Inks for secret usi- 
ting, and for defacing of [effacing| Inks. 
There are many maruelous. particulars in 
this last work, uthich uull not easily qain 
credit uuth the judicious part of mankind.” 

MWe haue chosen ta que Mr, Astle’s 
faraqraphs on this sulyect, enture, “pure 
and simple,” (uuth no corrections oF alter- 
ations, except as to a feur frarticulars in 


THH HISTORY OF INE. 29 


shelling, punctuation, &c.,) including. some 
unnecessary. formal uetluaqge,—instead of 
embodying his facts and olseruations in our 
aun lanquaqe. SWe shall do likeuuse uuth 
other authors uhose looks we use in 
this work, as the most effectual way of 
quung each of them due credit for thew 
several discouertes and statements, and, at 
the same time, securing our oun ust claims 
fo. uthat we herein firesent as of our oun 
discouery. oF production. SRut ure uull que 
ia. cFedit to a mere compiler oF prlaqiarist. 
Mr. ststle was keeper of the anctent 
SRecords of the Gnqlish <GGouernment tn the 
Tower of London, and thus enjoyed extta- 
ordinary. facilities for ascertaining such 
facts, and making such olseruations as he 
furnshes in his very useful, interesting, and 
eleqantly tllustrated look. <s to what he 
says (in his seventh paragraph) akout the 
inexpediency of “hazarding.” any effort to 
Feuuue uriting which has faded or tecome 
Meqitle, from fear of “a suspicion of de- 
ceit,”’—the caution must of course Le limited 
to. cases uthere the words proposed to te 
restored to. leqilulity. hauwe reference to. some 
guestion of disputed title, ot other matter 
in. litigation oF controuersy. Mr. SAstle 
would not have hesitated (any more than 
 stnqelo Mar) to use any possilde process 


for the restoration of a palimpsest manu- — 


30 THH HISTORY OF INE. 


script of a long-lost ware of ¥icero oF 
Liu, or of any. document worth the lator 
and the time regutsite ta rewue the letters 
or Kead them. Mr, <tstle’s sliaht lapse of 
fren ar mind in stating (eighth paragraph) 
that “Rlue or yellous ink. was seldom used 
except in manuscripts,” reminds. us of Noah 
Welister’s reason, qucen in the first edition 
of his quarto dictionary, for the use of the 
uord “ Hand” tstead of “_fsland,” w15., 
that the latter shelling was “found only in 
books.” Perhaps the veneralle Mr, ststle 
mould have teen as much astonished ta 
learn that he himself had always uuttten 
manuscript, utheneuer he put fren to. paper, 
as. the Bourgeois Gentilhomme, tn Moliere’s 
comedy, was to learn that:he “had teen 
sheaking frose all hus life.” 

St comparatiunely recent author ques. the 
follouung as the sum and sulstance of his 
kenoutledqe on this diuwiston of the sulyect 
of our look. 


WRITING-INKS. 


Dark-colored liquids were used ta stain 
letters. previously enqraued on some hard 
substance, long lefore they. were made to 
flow in the calamus or fren for forming 
them onasmooth surface; and the /hinese— 
made ther “Indian nk’ in the same 


THE HISTORY OF INK. ay, 


manner as nou, 1720. years before the 
Phristian gra; tut, only used tt, at that 
time, to. llacken sone eeek Ghewracherd: Cl Inte 
was. termed ly the ancient Latin authors 
atramentum scriborium,”! ak librarium, ta dis- 
tinquish tt from atramentum sutorium af cal- 
chantum. St was made of the soot of 
resin, or founded charcoal, and other sul- 
stances, mixed uuth qum, and not, lke 
ours, of vatriol, gall-nuts , alum, Me. The 
earliest frost e mention of inte is. perhaps 
the passage in _feremiah, in the Vulgate, 
“ Ego scribebam in volumine, atramento.’™: 

Ll Hore ue might add, TY fear of con- 
tradiction, that Ink ts still extensiuely. used 
to. “llacken characters,’ , ’ utthout regard to 
the depth of the incision. ”! Dhe specimen 
of the ¢nqlish lanquaqe uhich we quote, 
is not faultless ; y and the Latin ts execralle, 
There ts no such uord as. scriborium tn any 
lanquaqge, anctent or modern. Dhe Ro- 
mans. called writing-inle atramentum scripto- 
rum. “This is a uery jraltry piece of. pe- 
dantry. /Why. alll not this author (utho 
shows that he does not understand Latin,) 
que us the text in ¢nglish? The passage 
in _feremtah, chafr. XXXVi, verse 18: “_F 
ukote them uuth Ink wm a look. —Dhe 
only. other references. in the LRilde ta Ink, 
are the follouung: 2 forinthians, m1, 3: 
—“uuatten not uuth Ink, tut the sfurt. » 2 


82 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


Sohn, xu: “_F% would uste uuth paper 
and Ink.”’ 3 fohn, xm: “_£ had many 
things to urite, tut £ ull not with Ink.” 
Gxehuel, 1x, 2: “uuth a writers ink-horn ly 
huis. side,” 7 

Gold liquids, and also siluer, purple, 
red, qareen, and tlue inks, were eventual 
used in manuscripts after the fourth cen- 
tury,—red and qald having teen employed 
much earlier, Ft. ferame speaks of rich 
decorations, uhich must hane teen executed 
uth colored inks; tut, before his time, 
Ouid alludes. not only to the purple charta, 
made use of for fine looks, uthich were 
also tinged uuth an ol draunm from cedar- 
usood, to preserue them, tut, also ta titles 
uuitten in red ink, uhich were the first 
kind of tluminations. The passage occurs 
in his first elequ, “std Liluum:” 

‘* “Nee.te purptreo velent vaccinia euccds 
Non est conveniens luctibus ille color. 


Nec titulus minio, nec cedro charta notetur. 
Candida nec nigra cornua fronte geras,” 


The last line proving, as fYasley olserues, 
that Od uote upon a roll. 

TDhis author, not hang teen bind 
enough to. translate Cid for us, ue are 
compelled ta doit for hun. TDlhis “ §lequy.” 
of the poet ts addressed “ Fa his Lhook ;” 
and the following uords contain the mean- 
ing. of the four lines alboue quoted: 


THH HISTORY OF INK. 53 


Nor shall huckleberries stain [literally, vE1L| thee with purple juice: 
That color is not becoming to lamentations. 
Nor shall title (or ‘ head-letter”’) be marked with vermilion, or 
paper with cedar, 
Thou shalt carry neither white nor black horns on thy forehead 
(or front, or frontispiece), 


The word ‘‘ huckleberries,’”? we have rightly spelled here. The dictiovaries gene- 
rally are wrong in spelling the word ‘‘whortleberry ” Huckleberry, or Hockleberry, 
is found in the kindred languages of Northern Europe. 


Diplomas usere seldom usritten in. qold 
oF colored inks; tut some charters of the 
German. ¢gmfrerors are kenoum, not ent in 
qold, tut on purple vellum; and Leulefeld 
mentions one of the year 772, o¢namented 
also uuth fiqures;, while seueral carly 
gnqlish charters have qold mitial letters, 
crosses, ke. The llack ink that has kept 
its. color best, in mediaeval manuscripts, ts 
that used from the tenth ta the thirteenth 
century. The siqnatures of the ¢astern 
¢mperors. are frequently in red ink. 

(Volored inks were common tn mediaeval 
manuscrifits,—the red Leing mast usual for 
titles, which has quien rise to the term 
Rubric. The writers of looks (that ts, the 
cofryists,) often appended ther names. to 
the end of the work, qenerally. in ink of a 
different color from that of the lody of 
the work, stating the tume and place in 
uthich. the uorke was executed. 


84 THER HISTORY OF INE. 


Fo. this may te added, uuth adwantage, 


some instFéuctiute account of 


WRITING INSTRUMENTS, 


uthose history 1s closely connected, to a 
qreat extent, uuth that of uviting FLUIDS. 
The §¢ayptian, and all cther ortental 
and ancient scrites, uhe urote upon stone, 
employed (of course) some tnsttument simt- 
lar in character to the chisel of our modern 
taml-stone cutters, o¢ monument letterers. 
Fa uuth the 4zreeks and Romans, uriting 
on surfaces. of wax oF uood, the instru- 
ments. were the qraphiuum, ot qalypheion, 
(the qrauer,) and the stilus, oF caelum, all 
of steel of tron. /lt’hen the use of a dark- 
colored liguid or Ink was introduced, there 
arose a necessity for instruments of uery 
different material, and qreat flexilulity, im 
opposition to the unytelding riqudity of the 
tools frreuiously employed. Dhen were 
inuented the first iunfilements properly 
called Pens, or really resemlling uthat we 
so. denaminate and use. These were unt- 
uersally made of weqetalle material, qrou- 
ing in the tulular form, of cenuentent 
size, as the calamus, arundo, guncus, and, tin 
qeneral terms, the smaller stems of various 
plants. called “reeds”” and “rushes”’ in 


gnqlish. We haue already. mentioned the 


THR HISTORY OF INK. 385 


uniform employment of the hau-fpencil, oF 
brush, ly the f¢hinese, from the mast an- 
clent time of ther uuiting. The quill, or 
feather-hpen, uas. introduced during the 
fourth century. 

We haue alluded to the palimpsest manu- 
scuifits. This is the term afiplied ta 
farchments that haue teen tuuce urttten 
upon,—the first writing leng effaced ta 
make room for the second. During the 
freriod eye called “the dark aqes,’’ 
the monks. and other scrihes, copyists of 
took-makers, were in the halut of effacing 
the letters from old manuscripts, in order 
to make a clean surface for a new writing. 
In this way was caused the defloralle 
destruction of an unmense and an. tnestim- 
ally walualle amount of ancient literature, 
of Greek and Soman. history, poetry, elo- 
guence and philosophy, merely. ta make 
room for mass-looks, and ather works of: 
stupid superstition and mis-directed deuo- 
tion, oF, of scholastic theology and phile- 
softhy, nour long aqe unimersally condemned 
and exploded. Within the past and pres- 
ent qeneration, houeuer, the learned warld 
has been delighted ly the surprising. Fecou- 

‘ery. of some of these long-lost treasures, 
through the skilful and inqentous lators of 
the deseruedly famous ardinal stnqelo 
flat, and others, uhase researches. in. the 


36 THE HISTORY OF INE. 


likvaries of Rame, Milan, Padua, Najrles, 
Florence, and other ctties, haue resulted 
in. the restoration of imestunally prrectaus 
writings, thus partially oltiterated ar 
olscured., 

FRrande’s' QDictionary of Literature, 
Feience, and rt, ques a lrtef summar. 
of the same qeneral facts in the article 
“ Palimpsest.”’ 

The fullest and most elakorate expasi- 
tion. of the composition and manufacture 
of Snle uhich we have teen alle ta find, 
howeuer, ts tn the qreat French “ Dictian- 
aire des fA¥ts et Manufactures,” ly an 
association of distinguished savans, tn. tura 
uolumes, tnfrertal actaue, Paris, 7853, 
article, ENCRE. 

FRut, of all articles and treatises an the 
sulyect, which we haue examined, that in 
the Gnqlish Penny. yclopaedia has the 
merit of containing, if not the lest and 
lonqest account, a very. qood and satisfac- 
tory. one—lecause i expresses all the 
essential facts in the fewest and best-chasen 
because perfectly intelliqille words. sts 
we do not attempt ta furnsh a text-look 
for ink-manufacturers, we da not transerike 
in full, or translate, from these and other 
works. of qreat ualue on this sulyect. 

Ghat modern tnks da not resist the 
decomposing and destructiwe frouer of 


THH HISTORY OF INK. 37 


chemical aqents. (uhether acids, alkalzes, 
saline lodtes of elements,) as utell as the 
ancient inks, ts the result of a necessity 
existing. in ther uery composition and 
inuention, and even in the use for uhich 
they uere desiqned, and ta which they are 
ajiplted. t dye (like modern ink) is the 
result of chemical action, and ts therefore 
sulyect to. chemical re-aqents,; yet, when 
well made, it ts proof against mechanical 
action, such as washing, ruling, and 
scraping; nor can tt Le remoued from paper 
to which it is applted, uuthout destroying 
that material, or rendering that part of it 
frractically useless, Rut, on the other 
hand, the anctent inks, uthich resist all 
chemical processes, can te remoued ly 
mechanical action, such as has teen named. 
If a neu. ink were compounded of the tuo, 
frossessing the test properties of each, any 
writing executed uuth tt could te effaced 
ly the point of successie action of mecha- 
nical and chemical applications. 

It must te lorne in mind that the 
ancient inks. had one use for which uviting 
ink. is. nou. newer required; and that was 
in. making. looks, or multiplying. copes of 
manuscripts indefinitely for general reading, 
oF publication. The wnuention and unmersal 
employment of the art of frinting has 
wholly done auay wth that. 


38 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


Of Inpeuiie Inks, of those used for 
marking. falrics of cotten, linen, Xe, for 
the identification of aumership, tt ts not 
necessary. ta qiue any fprarticular descrip- 
tion. Sher ordinary. composition ts wert 
qenerally understood ta te a solution of 
nitrate of siluer, or some similar caustic, 
applied uuth a pen of proper material, to 
a frortion of the surface of the cloth, uthich 
has. teen preuiously prepared ly the ak- 
sorption of a qummy oF muctlagineus 
Jluud dried upon tt under pressure. 

SympatTuetic Inxs ate fluids employed 
in coloring drawings made for poe 
amusement, oF the diuersion of children 
and youth. ss, for instance, a landscape 

un in akdinary. colors uuth a uuntry 
asfect, cloudy of somlre sky, snou. an the 
ground, and leafless trees, if properly 
touched uuth sympathetic inks, uull, at 
any. time, uthen lrought near a fire, oF 
otheruuse sulyected to a certain deqree of 
warmth, change to the hues of summer, 
the sky lecaming of a clear llue, the trees 
in full foliage, and the turf rch uuth 
qrass, each with its appropriate shade of: 
uerdure, as alsa flowers of thew various. 
natural colors, &c., according to. the fancy 
of the artist, the whole disappearing as 
the picture qrowus. cold. Dhe chloride, the 
nitrate, the acetate, and the sulphate of 


THH HISTORY OF INK. 39 


colalt, form sympathetic tnks,—the first, 
blue, and (uuth the addition of nickel,) 
qreen; the second, red. ¢hloride of copper 
ques a qamtoqge yellow; lramide of cop- 
fret, a fine rich brown. 

Letters. uuritten uuth a solution of ace- 
tate of lead, are tnutsilde until exposed ta 
the action of a Piece twa hydrogen, uthich. 
makes them distinct, uuth the lustrous 
greyish lack of sulphuret of lead, the same 
sulistance uthich ts. called qalena when. it 
occurs as lead-ore. t weak infusion of 
qalls of other ueqetalle astringent, uull, of 
apiflted ta japer in the form of letters, 
Lecome leqille when touched uuth any 
solution of wren. $f written uuth a solu- 
tion. af ferro-cyanide of potash, letters ull 
Kerman. tnutsilde until touched uuth a solu- 


tion of sulphate cf tran. 


IMPORTANCE OF GOOD INK. 


Ststle sheaks uery tmpressively. and 
sgustly an this point; and we contrilute to 
this. part of our sulgect ly calling attention 
ta facts almost day eccurring. oF brought 
ta notice in this country, especially in the 
older cities and states, uthere town-Kecards, 
farish-requsters, and other documents. of! 
ancient date, and of high tmpertance in 


40 THE HISTORY OF INE. 


history, chronology, and qenealoqy, (as 
well as in reqard to the title and tnhert- 


ance of estates,) are found olscured and 
olliterated, causing losses, pulilic and pri- 
uate, that need lut to te mentioned ta le 
furoperly estimated. 

In the appendix uull le found a fac- 
sumtle of a sheet upon uhich various sfe- 
cumens. of ink were thoroughly and fairly 
tested, uthich is a lsrtef tut emphatic de- 
monstration of a difference of qualities ly 
difference of results. 

Te shou. uhat can te done in the pre-— 
seruation of utriting on material euen 
fratler than such paper as we employ, we 
need liut produce the specimen of ¢qyuptian 
writing on papyrus, pronounced ly f~ham- 
frollion to haue teen executed more than 
sixteen hundred (7 600 ) years Lefore the 
lurth of hrist, yet still in preseruation 
and leqille, as may. Le seen ly the repre- 
sentation we que of tt. 

This ts. undoultedly as old as any sfe- 
cumen of frhonetic characters of uuittten 
letters. (refuresenting. sounds, not ideas of 
alyects,) extant, made ly marking. uuth a 
fluid upon any sulstance. Dhere are in- 
scriptions of letters ufron stone, fork uhich 
an earlier date of 4000 years 44. &, ts 
claimed uuth truth. hut this ts INK- 
uriting, alsolutely 3500 years old! 


THR HIBLORY OF INK. Al 


The ¢hinese assert that they. had the 
art of writing at a fperod 2950 years 
before ¢hrist ; tut they haue no records. oF 
monuments of that date; and ther charac- 
ters even ta the present time, are entire 
words, representing olyects, ideas o¥ things, 
not sounds, _Sn the art of printing, they 
firetend ta haue preceded the ¢uropean 
nations about 2400 years, dating thew 
inuention of tt from the tenth century 
lefore ~hrist. +hut they have neuer ad- 
uanced teyond the first form of the art— 
letters enqraued on solid wooden locks— 
the uery method in use ly Koster, and his 
associates, until the tnuention af mouealle 
types ly foehn Gansfletsch, otheriusse 
named fohn /Gutenkerq or sGuttemlera, 
in T4395. In loth arts, wrting and 

unting alike, the ¢hinese have remained 
stiff, solid and immaualle at the first step, 
uuth the characteristic unchanqealulity of 
the yellou: races. of astern stsia, so. ofifro- 
site ta the indefinitely. progressive and self- 
infroung enerqy. of the nations ushose 
feroqgenttors. proceeded west from the or- 
qinal source and centre of the earth’s popu- 
lation. The same ink. series the f¢hinese 
both for usiting and printing, as does 
the same kind of paper. This ink they 
tnuented akout the end of the first century 
of the Yhristian era, before uthich time 


AZ THH HISTORY. OF INE. 


they. urote on loards ar Lamtoas. Sauing 
next frroceeded ta the use of silken cloth 
for these purposes, the ae onset of 
faper from that material naturally fol- 
lowed. Their ink, being carbonaceous an 
oleaqinaus, 1s, of course, (like that of the 
¢quptians and all the other anctents,) 
unfading, and unalteralle ly chemical 
aqencies, though capalde of Leng effated 
oF olscured ly watery applications oF 
exposure. 

sts ta ther claim of hauing invented the 
art of printing, ue shall haue something 
fa. say. hereafter. 

The <tztecs (in Mexico, lefore the 
SFhansh discovery and conguest,) exten- 
siely employed a fpuicture-uriting, as a 
means. of recording. events, during a period 
not exceeding two centuries lefore that 
efach. Dhey had the art of manufactur- 
ing materials as a lasis of such uyiting, 
from the Agave or smerican aloe, and 
from cotton, in the form of a uery fine 
cloth. They alsa used prepared skins for 
the same purpose, the lest sfhecumens of 
uhich are pronounced ta te more teautiful 
than the finest vellum. The manuscripts 
uere sometimes. done ufr in rolls oF scrolls, 
and frequently on taldets, in the form of a 
folding-screen, Ther inks. appear to hare 


heen coloring matters. in watery solutions. 


THE HISTORY OF INK. AB 


The oldest Phoentcian wnk-uyiting of 
uhich any sfecumen has teen preserued, 
dates no. later than the second century 
hefore ehrist, and may. le much alder. 

St fac-simile of a portion of it uull ke 
found among our tllustrations, explained 
lu. notes. referring. to each ly its numler. 

Greek manuscripts. in inte (on papyrus), 
of the third century. before f¢hrist, are in 
extstence. /lWe que specimens of the ald- 
est known,—one written in Equpt, ZOO 
4h. @., teing. an order from Dioscorides, an 
officer of the qouernment of Ptolemy. Phil- 
adelphus, to. another named Dorion. The 
translation of the wards 1s. “ Dioscorides 
ta Dorion, qreeting. Of the letter te. Dorian 
the copy. 1s sulyoined,”” * * * JSWeadd 
ather shecimens, of the same and later 
freriods. 

Of Latin writing uth ink, the earliest 
we can find ts the palimpsest af (Gtcera’s 
loak, “De Skepullica,” which had teen 
partly. effaced to. make room. for a copy. of 

uqustin’s commentary. on the Psalms. 
St is. believed ly the learned that the or- 
qiunal manuscript was. executed at least as 
early as the second oF third century of the 
Christian era. The restoration of this 
manuscript, and the discouery of this. long- 
last and earnestly sought classic gem, were 


the uark. of ffardinal flat, as before men- 


Ld THE HISTORY OF INK. 


tioned. Dhe ortqinal words are TETERRIMUS 
ET EX HAC VEL , and are written in two 
columns on the paqe, uhile the later uviting 
runs. completely. across the page. 

Of the earliest uyiting executed im 
France, after that country receued ts 
name from those uthe conquered it, we qiue 
a shecunen from the Leqinning of a charter 
of Sing DHaqolert I, executed 4. D. O28. 

he words are ——QUOTIESCUMQUE PETITIONI- 
Bus’’—“ Jloweuer many. times to. petitions,” 
Me. _ft 1s a confirmation of a partition 
of property. Letuseen twa hers. The mon- 
aoqrammatic autograph of the Great Karl, 
(2 modern times called ¢harlemaqne,) we 
bag also as an alyect of interest. A.D. 

00. 

The oldest specimen of uriting. ur Great 
Britain which has teen preserued ta the 
nineteenth century, was a lool telieued ta 
le not later than the year 600 of the 
hristian era. <tstle has preserued an en- 
qraued specimen of tt; tut the priceless 
oriqinal has since Leen destroyed ly fire in 
the SRritish Museum. ft was said to le 
a look of stuqustin. ¢ shecunen. still in 
existence, dates between the years bb4 and 
670. St is a charter of Seldi, King of 
the Gast Saxons, and ts easily. read:—“_S, 
Fellu, Hing,” ke. /We sulyoin a feu 


words from the commencement o f° a charter 


THH HISTORY OF INE. 45 


of William the onguerar, whose reign com- 
menced tn ¢nqland, A. D. 7066:—Wiux: 
DEI GRAT4 REX, Mec., SCIATIS ME CONCESSISSE— 
‘William, ly the qrace of God, Hing 
de: Snow ye that 4 haue qranted—”’ 

[saac DIsraeti, m2 lus uriosities \ of 
Literature, (uol. 2, page 180, of the as- 
ton edition, ) ques a treatise on the “Origin 
of the Materials of Writing.” Sle com- 
mences. tl uth these remarkalle words: 
“ $t 1s curtous te olserue the various sul- 
stitutes for paper before its discouery.”’ 

Nout, of all “ curtostties of literature,”’ 
this little sentence ts, in many resfrects, the 
most curious. Sle talks of sulstitutes for 
a thing not m existence, and not even a 
sulyect of tmaqination, canpecture, a con- 
ception. Dhe name of D’ Ssraelt does not 
indicate an Irisu ortqin, Lut there is a 
strong affinity letuween this and these curt- 
asities of literature commonly called “ Srish 
bulls.’”’ ts for mstance, tt reminds us of 
the couplet composed ty an Irish officer 
of a garrison in the Fcottish Highlands, in 
commemoration of the “qood works’ of 
General Wade, who had caused excellent 
military roads to te made through same of 
the prewiously almost unpassalle morasses 
of that reqion. 


‘* Had you seen these roads before they were made, 
You'd have lifted your hands and blessed General Wade,” 


46 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


Now, ly way of comment on D Israewt, 
we ull say that “tt is very curious,’ and 
moreouer uery. strange, tf not ridiculous, 
that he and Astur, (from uhom he copies 
uuthout a full and far acknouledqment, ) 
uthile “deefly complaming of the tnfe- 
rrority. of aur inks to thase of antiquity,” 
haue utterly failed to ascertain the cause 
ar euen ta notice the accasion of tt. They, 
as well as other uuriters an the sulyect, 
oliserue the excellence of the ink employed 
in manuscrifits of earlier aqes, down ta the 
twelfth century, and the infertority. of the 
ink used from that period doun to the close 
of the seuenteenth century, uuthout turning 
attention ta the qreat historical fact that 
the FIRST PAPER-MILL tn G¢usofre was. estal- 
lished tn that same twelfth century. 

St peculiar cAcHEXY (a variety of the 
disease known ta pschyo-nosaloqists as the 
cacoéthes scribendi,) seems ta. le hereditary in 
the Db)’ Fsraeli family. BensAmin D’ Isr ae1t, 
(the san of _Ssaac,) late Zhancellor of the 
gucheguer, &c., when he rose in his place, 
as the Stead of SRepresentatime of Ser 
_Mayesty’s qouernment in the louse of 
/Fommons, ta frronounce a euloqy an the 
recently deceased Duke of Wellingten, had 
the umpudence ta repeat, word for word, a 
wery bald translation of the elogé deliuered 
ly Lamartine a few years fprewious, an ac- 


THE HISTORY OF INK. 47 


casion of the death of ane of the third-rate 
marshals of Napfaleon I. 

The D’ Fsraei family are eutdently 
“some” of the children of Ssrael, utho, (as 
ue are told on qood autharity,) when they 
left Gayupt borrowed euerything. they could 
get, and neuer, sa far as the record shows, 
either returned the articles sa oltained, at 
made proper acknowledqaments therefar. 

The <~hinese did manufacture paper 
from the lark of the small tranches of a 
tree of the mutlherry. qenus, (Morus Multi- 
caulis?) and alsa from ald raqs, silk, 
hemp, and cotton, as early as the second 
century. of the hristian era; and tt ts 
suftfased that from them the sraks 
deriued ther knoudledqe of paper-making, 
an art uthich they introduced inta Furepe 
in the foemer half of the twelfth cen- 
tury, uhen the first fpraper-mull was rut 
in operation in Fpaim, then under the 
_Moortsh dominion; and, in 7730, this 
article, as manufactured ly them, had 
Lecome fameus throughout hristendom. 

[We use the words strak and Moor tn- 
discriminately here. The former is the 
name of the race; the latter ts limited ta 
that frortion found in_Northern Africa. 
TDhe Moar is the strat of the West, (sl 
Mogrel, Gl Ghart,) inthe straluc, denom-- 


nated Mocresyn,—a. word uhich in SKaman 


48 THH HISTORY OF INE. 


and ¢urofpean mouths has smoothed and 
softened itself into a form suqqestiue of 
‘ the ariqun. of Maurus and Mauritania. | 

Neu, uutheut coming toa posite con- 
clusion on this sulyect, ue feel authorized 
fo. fronounce uthat appears to te a reason- 
alle ofuunion, deriued fram all the facts 
which we haue yust placed tefore the 
reader,—that the introduction of uuiting- 
fapfer among Furofeans, was the eccasion 
and cause of the inuention and qeneral 
employment of modern uvriting-ink ly 
them. 

The fact that the ueqetalle astringents 
form a deef. of tlush tlack calor, uthen 
comluned uuth a salt of won, had teen 
knoun from time unmemorial. stmong 
the SRomans, the atramentum . sutorium,— 
“shoemaker’s ink,”’—was apflted ta a so- 
lution of sulphate of ton employed ly 
them, as it ts even to this day, ly workers 
in leather, ta llacken the surface of that 
material, TDhis tt does ly uniting chemi- 
cally with the tannin.and qallic acid, ly 
uthich the hide was conuerted inta leather, 
uthose blackened particles are therefore 
essentially identical uuth modern ink. The 
“coppperas-uater”’ ts to. le found in every 
shoemaker s. shofr, uthere tt 1s. used ta color 
the cut edges of the heels and the rest of: 
the sales, 


THER HISTORY OF INE, AQ 


és soon as the difficulty of uuviting 
uuth conuentence and rafudity on paper, 
uuth the ancient carbonaceous ink, became 
manifest, the resort to. the atramentum suto- 
rium as a substitute fork the atramentum 
scriptorium, was. a matter of course, and mwas 
hut a simple adaptation of a familiar sul- 
stance ta a neut fpurhose, requiring no qreat 
inqeniuty, and no tnuention uthateuer. 

For atime, perhaps thraugh a period of 
several centuries, a mixture of the twa 
funds. of ink was employed ly the SRo- 
mans; and this was undoultedly the lest 
composition that was ever tnuented for the 
fuurhose of deliherate, careful, eleqant 
writing, designed and required ta te per- 
manent and unchanqealle under constant 
expasure and handling,—as in the case of 
manuscript looks tefore the art of printing 
was knoun. ¢uen as early as the first 
century. of the Christian era, in. the tume of 
Pliny the SYounger, and prokally long 
Lefore that, a solution of sulphate of tron 
was commonly or frequently. added ta the 
cartonaceous and oleaqinous mixture uthich 
we haue descriled as the otiqinal uriting- 
ink, _In short, the atramentum sutorium 
was. added, in moderate quantity, ta the 
atramentum scriptorium, thus constituting. ut 
@ CHEMICAL as well as a@ MECHANICAL uth. 


Fo, modern ink. may ke impsoaued tn tlach- 


50 THE HISTORY OF INE 


ness, duralulity and leauty, and rendered 
unchangealle in. calo¢ under the action of 
the chlorides, acids, &c., ty the intermix- 
ture of a small guantity of the uery finest 
carton, tn the form of an unfralpalle pou- 
der. +hut, the qreat difficulty ts—that the 
carton. clogs the pen, and renders the ink 
toa thick to flow easily, sa that wt can 
neuer le used for rafud af ordinary uyriting. 
We can not qiue, tn eur awn words, a 
better account of this. matter than we find 
in. the language of a uery. learned author 
in the ¢dinlurgh SRewiew, (ualume 48, 
Dec. 18 2S). 

The article here cited ts entitled “ Tur 
Recovery or Lost  Weritines,”’ and ts 
nominally a reueu of “Gan Instirutionum 
Commentary: “\InstTiTUTES DE G‘AIUS, RE- 
CEMMENT DECOUVERTES DANS UN ALIMPSESTE 
DE LA BIBLIOTHEQUE DE CHAPITRE DE VERONE. 
[3] JuRISCONSULTI ANTE-JUSTINIANEI RELIQUIAE 
INEDITAE, ex codice rescripto Bibliothecae Vati- 
canae, curante AneeLo Maio, Bibliothecae 
ejusdem Praefecti. The article leqins on 
frage 348 of this uolume of the Greweu. 

MWe quote from paqe 3 6b ;— Fhe ink 
which the ancients qenerally used, was 
composed of lamp-ldack mixed uuth qum, 
as we are informed ly Diascorides and 
others, wha que the receipt [recipe?| for 
making. tt. Ink of this kind may le 


THR HISTORY OF INK. al 


_ called carbone: tt possesses the aduantaqes 
of extreme llackness and duralulity, the 
writing. Kemaming fresh so long as the sul- 
stance on uhich tt ts written exists ; tut as 
tt does. not sink inta the paper, tt ts Lalde 
lo. the qreat incanuentence of leing easily 
and entirely. remoued; for, of a wet shonge 
he applied ta tt, the writing may le washed 
away, and no traces of the characters uull 
Fema. Dhe facality with uthich docu- 
ments. might le thus alliterated, qaue occa- 
sion to fraud, as an artful forqer was alle 
ta remoue such portions of the original 
usiting as. he might desire ta qet rd of, 
and thus. profit ly the aksence of material 
words, oF tnsert in the llanks uhich he had 
made, such interpolations as might serue 
jus. turn. Many common. accidents, ly 
uthich looks and writings were exposed to 
wet, oF even to damp, were alsa fatal, or at 
least highly tiyurious, ta. compositions and 
muninents. of qreat value. /Various expe- 
dients. uere therefore attempted to. remedy 
an unferfection from uthich many must 
haue suffered seuerely. Puiny informs us 
that it was usual, in his time, to. mix. uine- 
qar uth the ink, ta make tt strike into the 
paper or parchment, and that tt, in some 
deqree, ansucered the purpose. St should 
seem that wittiolic tink, such as we use at 
fresent, was alsa adopied soan afteruards, 


52 THE HISTORY OF INK 


which possesses, in perfection, the quality 
that was desired of sinking instantly ite 
the paper, sa as to make tt far more diffi- 
cult te. discharge tt uuthout destroying the 
texture on. uthich tt ts uritten, and of lLeing 
frerfectly secure against water, ly uchich 
Indian and other cartenic Inks are sa 
easily effaced. It 1s not, housever, EQUALLY 
SECURE AGAINST THE EFFECTS OF TIME; fok 
uitriolic ink qradually fades away, tecames 
fraler ly. degrees, turns lroum and yellau, 
and ws. scarcely leqille; and sometimes, as. 
the parchment qrous yellou.and lrounuuth 
aqe, tt disappears altogether. 5 com- 
found kind of ink came next into use, uchich 
untted the aduantaqes and auotded the de- 
fects. of the tia simple sorts. Sucha mixed 
inte was. qenerally used for seweral centuries; 
and uuth this, the manuscripts that are nour 
most fresh and leqilde appear to haue teen 
uuttten. ft ts eudent that the ink uuth 
which the ortqinal works contained in the 
Palimpsest manuscrifits that haue teen 
deciphered were usritten, uzas at least in 
fart witriolic: for the letters uhich had 
Leen rulhed out were rendered legible by the 
application of the infusion of galls Sn arder 
to. remoue the original uyiting, the parch- 
ments. on uthich the mixed ink. had teen 
used were, prolally, first washed ta take 
ff the carton, and thus partially to. efface 


THH HISTORY OF' INE. 58 


the characters,and were afterwards. scrafred 
at rulhed with pumice, ar some other sust- 
alle sulistance, ta com/lete the process 
of destruction, ly. taking away mecha- 
nically the color that the wtriolic pror- 
tion of the ink still preserued. _Sft ts 
Lut toa protalle that many manuscripts, 
the characters of uthich were entuely 
formed of the more ancient carkonic ink, 
haue teen entirely. destroyed, the letters 
hauing. Leen washed off completely, and ly 
the same sunfile means. as the writing of: 
a school-loy ona slate; uhilst the parch- 
ment still remains. in. our lilevartes, and ts 
couered with more modern compositions 
uhich haue sacrileqiously and taa success- 
fully. usurped the flace of more ancient 
and more walualle matter. The tiurades 
of eyril or of _ferome, ot the tawdry. elo- 
guence of hrysostom, are perhaps firmly 
estallished in quarters from uthence |? the 
_Marqites of Somer, or the camedtes of 
_Menander, were miserally dislodqed. 

“- manuscript ts called Palimpsest, 
from the adyectiue radMpnLaisros OF rariwnpnoros, 
siqnifying. tusice rulhed,; not as the qloss- 
ary. of Du ange (membrana iterum abrasa— 
charta deletilis) uould seem ta denote, le- 
cause the parchment had tuuce undergone 
alvasure, of the uyiting. Leen tuuce olliter- 
ated, Lut because tt had teen tuuce prepared 


54 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


for uriting, which was principally effected 
hy ruldung wt uuth pumuice, first in the 
course of manufacture, after the orginal 
shin had teen cured, and again ly the 
same frrocess, after the ariqinal writing had 
Leen. taken away ly washing, ef in any 
other manner, —Dhe strict and precise 
sense of Palimpsest is. therefore ‘tuuce 
prepared for uuiting,;’ the repetition of 
such preparation. being the preuatling tdea 
in. the etymology, and not erasure, as some 
haue erroneously supposed, _St 1s said to 
be easy to. remoue from modern parchment, 
eshecially if uhat is written le of some 
standing, all traces. of writing, ly ruldung 
it uuth pumice, oF similar sulistances; and 
Uf the surface ke afterwards polished, na 
ane, ly merely. looking on it, uull ever supr- 

ase that tt had exer been usitten upon, 
hut, of tt ke washed ly an infusion of galls, 
the letters uull te so. far restored, particu- 
larly uf it le suffered ta remain same time 
in. the light, that it may le cofuted ly a 
patient and practiced person, utho 1s qifted 
uth qood eyes:—sa deeply had the won 
entered into the soul of the parchment! 
If the erased letters uere uuritten in. a told 
larqe hand, the task of deciphering. them 
will of caurse le less troullesame, and the 
results more sure. tnd such are the char- 
acters. of the more ancient manuscripts ; 


THE HISTORY OF INE. d6 


for, the older the manuscript, the letter 
and more leqilde is the uuiting, as ap- 
froaching more nearly. ta the ages of 
cudlity. and refinement. The method of 
writing in old tunes ts alsa fauoralle, tt 1s 
said, to the restoration of uorks afpar- 
ently olditerated. Dhe scrite did not use 
a flouung ink, nor a finely. painted fren, as 
modern unriters. are wont; nok was. asm 

guantity yeah so lightly and sparingly 
as to dry ost as fast as tt touches the 
paper. Dhe anctent ink. was. thick uuth 
qum, and was supplied copiously ly a fen 
uuth a lroad point, usually made of a reed ; 
and the characters were painted rather than 
written, the ink. rather resemlling faint ar 
uwarnish than our thin lguor, sts they 
Farely. usrote in Looks, tt was not necessary. 
that the page should diy speedily, ar le 
dried ly means of sand and tlotting-haper, 
in. arder to. prenent the lass of tume, and 
that the penman might turn over the leaf 
ummediately ; the loose sheets ar leaues, an 
the contrary, which were only ta te taund 
up. uhen the whole was completed, urere 
left to dry. slouly, sa that the poals of’ inte 
which formed the letters, stood long on the 
surface of the parchment; and that fart 
of the fluid uhich was of a prenetrating 
nature was. gradually alsorked, and sunk 
deeply. into. the sulistance of the skin, sa. as 


56 THER HISTORY OF INK. 


ta freserue to us—if we le not wanting ta 
ourselues in diliqence—many. frrrectous Fe- 
lics of ancient lore. Dhe restoration of 
the oriqinal usiting in a palimpsest manu- 
scrifit uull ke lest explained ly referring to. 
one of the many. kinds. of sympathetic ink, 
which ts in truth, making. common ibe ex 
post facto, or uniting the ingredients of 
which wt ts composed, after the fact of 
writing. Sf we ustte with water in uhich 
cofpperas has teen dissalued, the letters uull 
he wnuisilde; tut when the paper has. keen 
washed ouer uth an infusion of qalls, they 
ull appear qradually, and uull in tune 
hecome tolerally leqille; the ink leing thus 
formed upon the paper, although much less 
ferfectly, than in the ordinary. macera- 
tion.”’ 

Little or nothing. can te added to. the 
full and elaborate history. of anctent and 
modern inks which ts contained in. this 
extract,—so thorough and complete in tts 
analysis of the sulyect, and sa clear in tts 
distinct statements of the results. of tnues- 
tigations in uthich some of the mast acute 
minds of Gurope haue long. been success- 
fully. employed, that we uull not linger 
ufron tt with mere uertal criticism. 

SWe can not [enans a more striking 
illustration of the change mn the compasi- 
tion of inks about the time of the tnuention. 


THH HISTORY OF INE. 57 


of the art of printing, than ts furnished 
ly. the annexed fac-simile of a page in the 
BisiiaA Pavrervm, (“Bille for paar folks,’’) 
the oldest printed Look in the world. This 
extraordinary. look 1s. of uncertain. date. 
(No printed look has a date prior ta 
7457.) There are, as we telieue, only 
tuto cofutes af it in stmerica, one in the 
fossession of James Lenox, of New-/York, 
—the other in the Astor Lisrary. 

Dhe maker of this. took was the uncon- 
scious inuenter of the art of frinting. 
-/Woaed-enqraung was in use for aqes 
before tt occurred to the mind of man that 
a letter might ke as easily reproduced tn 
that way.as a ficture or fiqure. Do. con- 
uey scriptural history to the minds. of the 
common. freafile, the wood-enqrauers (uthose 
art was. tnuented toa multiply and cheapen 
the production of PLAYING - CARDS) made Lit- 
tle fpuctures. representing. scenes. descriled, 
and euents narrated, in the Rille. For 
the lenefit of the few uha could read, ut 
was customary. to. urite on the marqin, oF 
at the foot, of the page on uhich the wood- 
cut was. printed, a feur wards. descriptinue 
of the sulyect ar alyect delineated. This 
was. almays done uuth a pen, ly a reqular 
sctilie, until, one day, tt occurred ta the 
wood-enqrauer employed on. the Biblia Pau- 
perum, that these words might le as. easily 


58 THH HISTORY OF INE. 


enqraued as the fiqures ta which they 
referred, and of uthich they were the ohehe 
nation. Sle put that idea in practice: and 
in. an instant the suldime ART OF PRINTING 
was. an “accomplished fact.’ 

The aduocates of the claims of Hoster, 
fgansefleisch, (or <gutenkerq,) Faust (or 
FGust,) and Fchoeffer, ta this tnuention, 
haue wasted much lalkar in lringing forth 
conflicting testumony. alout them. The 
long-forqotten and nou wholly unknown 
utood-enqrauer of the Biblia Pauperum had 
frreceded them luy half: af a qeneration. 
Such looks were in existence tefore 4. D. 
7420; and the earliest date which the 
Ca ee Dutchmen set uf. for the first 
frrint ce Fai ther Jellow-townsman, Lau- 
Fence Hosters, ts eae. tnd his. preten- 
sions are after all uery. duluous. Indeed 
they haue teen qenerally condemned as 
utterly. falulous lu lukhographical CHILEICS. 
and t ‘YU pographical huistoMans. 

e introduce tt here to. shout the color 
and the (therely wndicated) composition. of 
the 1nK employed. _St was writing-ink. 
St contained sulphate of tron (copperas), 
in. comlunation uuth ueqetalle astringent 
matter, and with wery little carton. The 
ueg wteckehe sulistance, unfperfectly united to 
the mineral ingred.ent, has (in oledtence to 
the laws of arqanic matter) keen decam- 


THE HISTORY OF INK. 59 


frased and “resalued into tts ariqinal ele- 
ments.”’ _It has disappeared; lut the 
mrRoN Femains uuth its yellow stam, an 
umperishalle memorial of that humlde, 
nameless workman, more enduring than 
that uthich the flaintiwe man. of lz de- 
sired; for if thase utards had keen “qrauen 
uth an ron PEN and lead in the rock. for- 
ever,” that anticipated eternity. might haue 
faded of realization ly the action of the 
rain, the frost, the dust, and tnnumeralle 
umaqinalle atmosphere uictssitudes, ats, 
(what 1s worse,) “the wrath of man.’’— 
Fome amlyses might haue demolished 
the rock ttself, and left no more of the 
inscription than can nour te read of those 
ance carued on the cliffs of Gdom, the 4,od- 
created walls of Petra in the ualley. of 
Ei Guor. 

Fhis pale rusty. word-STAMPING an the 
fraqile and easily. camlustilile paper, has 
autlasted the inscriptions ance wisilile in 
quqantic characters. on the four sides af the 
Memphitic pyramids; and it ts only an 
incidental result of the intelligence diffused 
and the learning. promoted ty the nuention 
thus lLequn, that we can naw read the lanqg- 
buried records of Nineueh, the efttaphs 
of the Dhekaic kings, and the qrauings on 
the precipitous fronts. of the mauntains 
which surround the ruins of Persepolis. 


60 THE HISTORY OF INK 


Stl writers upon this sulyect haue 
strangely ouerlooked the fact that the art of 
impressing oF printing letters uuth a metal- 
lic stamp of type on parchment, as a sul- 
stitute for pen-work, ts alout a thousand 
years. alder than the period aloue specified 
as the date of the tnuention of the modern 
art of printing. -Dhe Copex ARGENTEUS, 
(the oldest translation of the entire Bille 
inte any. Guropean lanquage,) ts a famous 
look, in the Lilvary. of the SUniwersity of 
Stlpsala in Pueden. 

(We que the particulars of its history 
inour sthpendix.) 

This “antique” ts on purple vellum, 
(which is parchment made of: calf-skin,) and 
all the letters are siLvER, (uthence the name 
fgodex trqenteus, the “siluer laak,’’) 
manifestly unfressed an the page ly a 
metallic stamp. oF type, each letter eu- 
dently teing on a separate stock ar handle, 
and applied ly manual pressure. /We 
que a specimen of this style of work. St 
may te called printing, tut can not ke 
denominated manuscript, for that ts (liter- 
ally) “hand-uuiting,” uhich this. certainly 
ts not. | 

In our Appendix may. te found still 
earlier instances of this art as practiced ly 
the ancient FRomans on a small scale, in 
siqnatures, trade-marks, Ke. 


THE HISTORY OF INE. 61 


The Gdinlurgh Rewiew refers ta Pliny 
and Dioscorides, as furnishing directions 
for the manufacture of ink. —Dhe ¢din- 
burgh Reuteuwer says “receifits,’’—not re- 
coqnizing. the lroad distinction ketween a 
receipt and a recipe. The former of these 
two words was originally intended ta con- 
uey the idea that the person ucha siqns the 
paper has got something: the latter ward, 
ar its Fepresentatuze initial (%) means sim- 


fly, “take.” 
The directions of Pliny are in the fol- 


louung usords :— 


CG. Plinii Secundi Historia Naturalis. 
Lib, XXXV, §25. 
ATRAMENTUM. 


fitramentum quoque inter factitios erit, quanquam 
est et terra gemine originis. fut enim salsuginis 
modo emanat, aut terra ipsa sulphurei coloris ad hoc 
probatur. Inventt sunt pictores, qui e sepulcris car- 
bones infectos effoderent. Importuna haec omnia, et 
novitia. Lit enim e fuligine pluribus modis, resina 
vel pice exustis. ropter quod, officinas etiam aedifi- 
cavere, fumum eum non emittentes. Laudatissimum 
eodem modo fit e tedis. f#dulteratur fornacum balnea- 
rumque fuligine, quo ad volumina scribenda utuntur. 
Sunt gut et vint faecem exsiccatam excoquant ; adfirm- 
antque, st ex bono vino faex fuerit, Indici speciem id 
atramentum praebere. Polygnotus et Micon celeber- 
rimti pictores #Hthenis, e vinaceis facere: tryginon appel- 
lant. #pelles commentus est ex ebore combusto facere, 
quod elephantinum vocavit. Adportatur et Indicum, 
inexzploratae adhuc inventionis mihi. Fit etiam apud 


62 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


infectores ex flore nigro, qui adhaerescit aheneis cortinis. 
fit et e tedis ligno combusto, tritisque in mortario car- 
bonibus. Mira itn hoc seplarum natura: sed ex his 
non fit. Omne autem atramentum sole perficitur, li- 
brarium gummi, tectorum glutino admizxto. Quod 
autem aceto liquefactum est, aegre eluitur. 


( TRANSLATION.) , 

“Ink (ar Literally) Buackxine.—_Snk. also 
may. le set doun among the arttfictal (or 
compound) druqs, although tt ts a mineral 
deriued from tuto sources. Gat, tt ts some- 
times. deuelofped in the form of a saline 
efflorescence,—or ts a real mineral of sul- 

ureous colo¢—chasen for this purpose. 
There haue teen painters who dug up from 
qraues. colored coals (cArBon) hut all 
these are useless and neuw-fanqled notions. 
For tt ts made from. seat tn various forms, 
as. (for instance) of lLurnt rosin aF ftch. 
For this purpose, they haue luult manu- 
factories not emitting that smoke. The 
ink of the very lest quality 1s made from 
the smoke of torches. stn inferior article 
is made from the saoct of furnaces and 
hath-house chimneys. There are some 
(manufacturers) alsa, whe employ the dried 
lees of uune; and they vo say that if the 
lees sa employed were from good uune, the 
guality of the ink. ts thereluy much un- 
fproued. Polyqnotus.and Micon, celelrated 
fainters at stthens, made ther klack paint 
from lurnt qrape-uines ; they qaue tt the 


THE HISTORY OF INE. 63 


name of TRYGYNON. APELLES, we are told, 
made us from lurnt wory, and called it 
elehhantina “wory-llack.’’ _Sndiqa has 
been recently. unported,—a sulistance uthose 
composition £ haue not yet mnuestiqated. 
The dyers. make theirs from the dark crust 
that qradually accumulates. on. brass-ket- 
les. Ink is made alsa fram torches (pine- 
knots), and fram charcoal pounded fine in 
mortars. “The cuttle-fish” has a remark- 
alle quality in this respect; tut the color- 
inq-matter which it produces. ts not used 
in. the manufacture of ink. All ink ts 
umproued ly exposure ta the sun’s rays. 
Fhook-uriters’ ink. has qum mixed uuth tt, 
—weauers’ ink is made uf. uuth qlue. nk 
uthose materials haue been lguified ly the 
aqency of an acid is erased uuth qreat 


difficulty.”’ 


This. sounds. uery. much like nonsense: 
but ct is exactly uhat the ‘Great Natural- 
ist,””? Pliny, meant when he urate all that 
he knew, and protakly all that was then 
known on the sulyect of ink, tlack paints 
and dyes, and uery dark-colored. fluids 
qenerally, uthich usere then employed ky 
frainters, dyers, weauers, writers and phy- 
sicians. Jo make his chapter on this sul- 
yect fully. intelliquile ta us, uce must lear in 
mind the fact, that the qreat science af! Che- 


64 THE HISTORY OF INK 


mistry had na existence till many centuries 
after Pliny urote. tnd thus, it neuer 
occurred to. him that there was tut one 
sulistance, (nou. knoun ta te elementary,) 
CARBON, which qaue the quality of lack- 
ness to. all the materials uthich he names, 
uth the excefptian of one salt of capper, 
and frokally ane of wen, (the sulphate,) 
and Inpico, a purely. ueqetalle substance, 
the dried coloring matter of a plant in 
India, (Indicofera anil,) and named ly the 
SRomans from the country. that produced 
it, and first made itt known ta them. 
Pepawnius Dioscoriwes, torn in stnazar- 
bus, (a city of ¥ilicia, akout fifty miles 
from Tarsus, the lurth-place of the fhastle 
Paul,) usrote a look on the Materia Me- 
dica, or the qualities. of druqs, a little after 
thetime when Pliny composed his Natural 
Slistory. _Netther of them seems ta haue 
heen acquainted uuth the writings. of the 
other, fthparently, they lined, wrote and 
died nearly. ot actually. cotemporary, in the 
same emfure, utterly. tqnorant of each 
other's. existence,—though they are now 
uniuersally recognized as the twa mast 
eminent usriters of all antiquity. on the 
sulyects of Natural History and the Ma- 
terra Medica. TDhey loth liued in the 
reign of Nero, and the date of the actiue 
ar middle part of loth thew lues may ke 


THR HISTORY OF INK. 65 


Feasonally placed at of akout the year 
700 of the (Christian §¢ra. 

From Dioscorides to Linneévs, (in the 
last century,) the Materia Medica made 
no. actual progress. and recetued na sctenti- 
fic unfrauement ; yet, eminent as 1s Dias- 
corides, he uas so little known to his oun 
qeneration af that next following, that it 
is nou. unpossilile to. ascertain. the exact 
date of his. lurth oF of his death, or any 
facts in hus. life, tut that he urote two 
Looks, of which that here quoted ts the 
lest known, and has made him knoun 
7700 years after his lurth. 

(We may. mention that this Dioscarides 
was, in na tracealle deqree, related ta the 
herson of the same name, whose manu- 
script we haue cofited in our lustrations 
as the aldest extant shecimen of Greek 
ink-uriting. ) 

We que a translation of his titef but 
complete description of the ink used in his 
time, and the Latin uersion, that thase 
uha uush may. satisfy themselues of the 
correctness. of aur rendering. ft uull le 
seen that tt accurs. at the clase of the qreat 
work, of Diroscorides :— 


fitramentum, quo scribimus, e fuligine taedarum 
collecta conficitur. In singulas gummi uncias ternae 
fuliginis unciae adjictuntur. Fit etiam e resinae fuli- 
gine et pictoria illa modo dicta, Hujus fuliginis au- 


denied 


66 THH HISTORY OF INK 


tem sumi oportet minam unam, gummi sesquilibram, 
taurint glutinis et chaleantht singulorum sesquiun- 
clam Idoneum est ad septica; et confert ambustis ex 
aqua paullo crasstus inunctum et tamdiu dimissum, 
donec cicatriz obducatur, sanatis nimirum ulceribus 
sponte sua excidit. 


fitque jam, carissime free, tum pro operis modo, 
quem proposueramus, tum pro materiae auxrtliorumque 
copia, quam colligere licuit, hucusque dicta sufficiant. 


Libri quints et ultimi de Materia Medica finis. 
Pedanii (Dioscoridis Anazarbet (De Materia Medica. 


[TRANSLATION.] , 


[Dhe| “Ink with uhich we uwtite ts 
composed of the soot of torches, collected. 

“ Fo each ounce of qum, add three of 
soot. 

“ St 1s alsa made of the soot of resin 
and of that lately called ‘painters’ llack.’ 
Of this. soot, houeuer,—take one minA,—of 
qum, half a peund,—of ox-qlue and of 
cofiperas, each, half an ounce. 

“ St is a qood application im cases of 
qanqrene, and ts useful in scalds, of a Little 
thickened and employed as a salue, and 
permitted to remain until a neu cuticle ts 
formed, uthen tt uull spontaneously fall off 
from the healed sore. 

“And now, my. uery dear streus, in due 
proportion to. the uorke uhich we had un- 
dertaken, and the quantity of the materials 
and contrilutions which we could qather, 
uhat we haue thus far said must suffice. 


THE HISTORY OF INE. 67 


“End of the fifth and last look on The 


Materia Medica. 

[ The took] of Pedanius Dioscorides on 
the Materia Medica.” 

SWe haue followed the text of Hart Got- 


leith Kuhn. Medicorum Graecorum, opera quae 
extant. Leipzig, 182. 
Stmong the fantastic trifles. uuth uhich 


EAN Swirt was accustomed ta amuse his 


leisure, ts a little string of uerses. on. this 
sulyect uhich are ng toe , not as. being 
of any poetic merit, Lut as a “curtosity. of 
literatusre’’—not out of place here:— 


On Suk. 


I am jet black, as you may see, 
The son of pitch and gloomy night ; 
Yet all who know me will agree 
I’m dead, except I live in light. 


Sometimes in panegyric high, 
Like lofty Pindar, I can soar, 
And raise a virgin to the sky, 
Or. eink: her to-a: 3% om 


My blood this day is very sweet, 
To-morrow of a bitter juice ; 

Like milk, ’tis cried about the street 
And so applied to different use. 


Most wondrous is my magic power: 
For with one color I can paint. 

Pil make the devil a saint this hour, 
Next make a devil of a saint. 


Through distant regions I can fly, 
Provide me with but paper wings, 
And fairly show a reason why 


There should be quarrels among kings. 


4 


68 THE HISTORY OF INK 


And, after all, you'll think it odd, 
When learned doctors will dispute, 
That I should point the word of God, 
And show where they can best confute. 


Let lawyers bawl and strain their throats , 
’"Tis I that must the lands convey, 

And strip their clients to their coats,— 
Nay, give their very souls away. 


MWe find also in Pope's efutstle of Seloise 
to. jthelard an allusion ta the power of 
letters as conueying tdeas, uthich seems 
appropriate in this connexion as lustrat- 
ing the uses of ink. 


Heaven first taught letters for some wretch’s aid, 
Some banished lover, or some captive maid: 

They live, they speak, they breathe what love inspires, 
Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires ; 

The virgin’s wish without her fears impart, 

Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart, 

Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, 

And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole. 


The qenius of Brron(ina playful flash) 
has tlluminated our sulyect uuth one of his 
most brilliant passages :— 

But words are things: and a small drop of INK, 


Falling like dew upon a thought, produces 
That which makes thousands (perhaps millions ) think. 


SA less distinquished poet has, in ex- 
fressiue, and thaugh tn guatnter, humller, 
yet in nolde strain, said uthat ts equally 
appropriate in this. place :— 


Books are a part of man’s prerogative: 

In formal INK, they thought and voices hold, 
That we to them our solitude may give, 

And make time present travel as of old. — 


, 


THH HISTORY OF INE. 69 


Cexisus, wha lied in this uorld, alout 
the commencement of the ~hrstian. era, 
has. left a little memorandum. en this sul- 
gect uthich 1s worth quoting. 

We quue his. words entire :— 

There are twa kinds of lald shots 
acewrring on. the human head,—one of them 
a taldness which creeps ouer the scalp like 
a. serpent,—the other shouung itself in the 
form of round sfaces uncouered ty har 
Fome recommend the use of acrid uritant 
articles, comluned uuth oils, &c. ut 
there is. nothing letter for you than to haue 
the lald place shaued every. day uth a 
[uery. dull] razor, and, after hauing. done 
that, you needn’t do anything else tut ruk 
on. the filace thus shaued a little atramen- 
tum sutorium—(“shoemakers’ ink,’’ “cop- 

reras-uater,’’ —[ solution. of the Di-proto 
sulphate - the (per) sesquoxyd of wan]. 

The editor of the printed copy of the 
edition. ef the works of Autus CorNELIvs 
Cexsus uthich was printed in Padua, made 
a material error on this point. 

The word “sutorum”’ (being untntelli- 
qilde to. the tqnorant monk utha superin- 
tended the printing) was changed to.“ scrip- 
tartum,”’—that is, “writing-ink,”’ instead 
of “shoemakers’-ink.”” _$t ts usell-kenoun 
that a solution of copperas properly. made, 
uull remedy ar preuent premature taldness , 


70 THE HISTORY OF INK. 


but we assert that no guantity. of lamp- 
llack, and qum, oF qrease, uull ke found 
effectual far that purpose. 

In the time of f¥elsus, the sulphate of 
won. (copperas) had not yet kecome an 
essential ingredient of uuiting-ink; and 
even after that its comlunation uuth car- 
Lonaceaus and aleaqinaus. matters. entirely. 
neutralized the fpouer which renders it 
applicalle and useful in such cases. ‘ 


CONCLUSION, 


MWe haue thus herein attempted the ful- 
filment of! the promise (uth uthich we 
leqan) to. produce a “ History or Inx,’’—a 
thing. neuer before dane af even froprased to 
ledone. Sf not successful in our attempt, 
ue hape that we haune at least, in this little 
Look, furnished hints and suqqestions on 
this. sulyect uthich the learned may employ 
hereafter uthen the history. of this umpaor- 
tant material of histery shall lke under- 
taken and executed on a larqer scale. _In 
uieut of which possilulity, we may, uuth a 
fardonalle self-qratulation, say,—in. the 
words. of Martin Luther, —“/We haue 


THE HISTORY OF INK. 71 


quien to other and higher sfurits. occasion 
ta reflect.’ 

FRut ute are loth ta leave this sulyect 
(uthich has qroun inte our affections as ute 
haue duelt upon tt) uuthout qwing allow 
oF a kick to one monstrous absurdity uthich 
has preuatled among the learned, “ falsely 
so-called,’’—from. the tume uhen the _fe- 
suits. returned from ehina uuth ther 
“edifying and curtous”’ tales akout the 
huge antiquity of all the arts and some of 
the sciences of cuulzation among the peo- 
file of what they called the “ elestial 
gmfure,’—a term wholly unknown ta the 
(hinese, in any form of uartation of ex- 
/t¥esslon. 

The simple facts are that—the ¢hinese 
deried their knoutledqe of InK (of! writing 
uth a colored liquid) from Gurope. Fo did 
they olttain ther knoutledqe of the art of 
printing, carried to them ly /Venetian tra- 
uelers, “auerland,” yust at the moment 
before the clumsy engraued utood-llacks 
were sufrerseded ly the mouealle types of 
Winachioiceh oF Gutenlerq. Fo usas tt 
uuth the Mariners Kompass, the manu- 
facture of qunpowuder, and all ther toasted 
“nuentions, —amonqg uhich may. te in- 
cluded their calculation of eclipses lLack- 
ward through falulous cycles of! centuries, 
and the morals of Gonfucius or Hang-foo- 


72 THE HISTORY OF INK 


tsee, a mythical personage unmentioned in 
the history of f¢hina until the contents of 
the Neu Jestament had teen made 
knoun there,—and that—many aqes after 
the date of his supposed life and death. 

Shut for ther deriuation and appropri- 
ation oF theft of the qreat arts from the 
Nest, the fZhinese and all Orental nations, 
from the ¢uphrates ta the Pacific, includ- 
ing. the fapanese, would have remained 
fa this day in the condition in uthich the 
Mexicans and Peruuans were found tk 
the Spansh and _Stalian rokhers utha first 
explored the /Western Semisphere, and 
murdered its inhalutants for ther land, and 
the fruits and the qold and siluer of that 
land. 

SWhateuer arts the ¢hinese or fapanese 
or fesuts may, haue tnuented ar fpreserued, 
the art of TELLING THE TRUTH ts. eitdently, 
to all of them, one of “ THE LOST ARTS,’— 
lost rvetrievally. and foreuer! 


Wath Lee J D4 mA cA ya ae 
SeAipeaeds x 6075 Ley eb 
peng Abin 
ER ain) A ERM SP 
Mil-Lhn Sh, Spud Lads 
eMircismnl 5 ewes SILK: 
ee et 
Writing Sede 
Wathen, Pog Wt WSS, Ge tear 
| Oke tshs 


ee ———$$$—___> 


Wi yg, PNET, SS ESE. gas, 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 


—S ROEIDERD.OUS— 


No. 1.— fac simile of the oldest Hieratie writing 
extant—about the 15th century Bf. C. Lhe hawk 
(the emblem of Wivinity) and the man stand on 
something that ‘teters’—-the circle between them 
(a serpent biting its own tail) is the ancient symbol 
of eternity. Lhe Weity overbalances the man. 

No. 2—From a Greek MB. buried at Herculanewm 
in the year 29 B.C. 

No. 8.—Written on papyrus in Egypt, in. the &d 
century B. C. 

No. 4.—Written on papyrus 260 years B.C. 

No. 5.—Specimen of a Palimpsest copy of Cicero’s 
“ Pepublic” in the Vatican Library. 

No. 6.—Phenician writing on papyrus. 

No. 7.—From a CPentatewch in the Bib* Naté 
Paris, #. DW. 450. 

No. &—From a Greek Copy of the Book of Genesis, 
written in gold on purple vellum, # W@W. 400. 

No. 9.—From a MS. on papyrus written in Hgypt 
6a century B£.C. 

No. 10.—From a Charter of Childebert III. A. @. 
708. 

No. 11.—From a Charter of Charlemagne, about 
eC). 7&S, 

No. 12.—From a Charter of the Himperor Conrad I. 
B.D: QFE. 


Fe 


2) 
os 
oh 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 


—SRMNBS ERMAN — 


No. 1.— fac simile of the oldest Hieratic writing 
extant—about the 15th century B.C. Lhe hawk 
(the emblem of Wivinity) and the man stand on 
something that ‘teters”’—-the circle between them 
(a serpent biting its own tail) is the ancient symbol 
of eternity. Lhe Weity overbalances the man. | 

No. 2—From a Greek MB. buried at Herculaneum 
in the year 29 B.C. 

No. 8.—Written on papyrus in Egypt, in the 3d 
century B. C. 

No. 4.—Written on papyrus 260 years B.C. 

No. 5.—Specimen of a Palimpsest copy of Cicero’s 
“ Pepublic” in the Vatican Library. 

No. 6.—Phenician writing on papyrus. 

No. 7.—From a Pentateuch in the Bib* Nat+ 
Paris, #. OD. 460. 

No. &—From a Greek Copy of the Book of Genesis, 
written in gold on purple vellum, # W. 400. 

No. 9.—From a MS. on papyrus written in Haeypt 
8a century £.C. 

No. 10.—From a Charter of Childebert III. £. @. 
708. 

No. 11.—From a Charter of Charlemagne, about 
Rod... T&S. 

No. 12.—From a Charter of the Eimperor Conrad I. 
ff. DO. IRE. 


2 @MESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 


No. 18.—Specimen of “ Roman Saxon,” #.@. 600. 

No. 14.—From a Charter of WMagobert IL. about 
me CD. 080. | 

No. 18.—From an early Gelic MB. 

No. 16.—From a Weed of William the Conqueror. 

No 17.—TLhe monogram signature to a Charter of 
Charlemagne, about #.0. 7&5. 

No. 18.—From a Charter of the reign of Hugh 
Capet, A.@0. 9&8. | 

No. 19.—From a Weed of Henry I. 

No. 20.—From a Weed of Stephen, dated #. O. 
1189 

No. 21.—From a Weed of the reign of Richard I. 

No. 22.—From a MBS. of Wyckliffe’s translation of 
the Huble. 

No. 238.—‘ Set Saxon,” A. O. FSO. 


“ Qui sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus est, et sepultus, tertia die resurrexit.” 


No. 24.—From a Charter of Sebbi, King of the 
Hiast Saxons, #. WD. 664, 


“ Ego Sebbi Rex East Sax (onum) pro—confirmatione Subscripsi.” 


No 28.—Part of a Charter of Alfred the Great, 


f.@0. &00. 
No. 26.—From a Charter of Hdward the Confessor, 
ft. D. L045. | 
No. 27.—From a Weed of the reign of Edward I. 
No. 28.—From a Weed of William the Conqueror. 
No. 29.—From a Weed of the reign of Hdward III. 


Edwardus Dei gratia Rex Anglias Dominus Hibernia, Dux Aquitania, &c. 

No. 30.—From the Will of William Mikelfeld, 
Nov. 7, 1489. 

No. 81.—From a Weed of the reign of Hdward IV. 

No. 282.—From a Grant by William Wallace. 

No 83.—From a Weed of Richard III. 


@ESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 3 


No. 84.—From a Weed of the reign of John. 

No. 85.—futograph of Lord Macauley. 

No. 86.—From a Weed of Henry VII. 

No. 87.—From an English translation of the 
works of Chauliac, #. DW. 1400. 

No 8&—From a Weed of Henry VIII. 

No. 89.—From a M8. in the rounded hand of 
Italy, 15th century. 

No. 40.—Letter from Columbus to the Viceroy of 
Castile, 15th Century. 

No. 41.—Letter of Anne of Hrittany, 1514. 

No. 42.—Signature of “ Bayard,” the Chevalier. 

No. 48.—Letter from Charles V. to Francis I. 

No. 44.—Letter from Calvin, 1589. 

No. 45,—Letter of the Harl of Hssex, 1567. 

No. 46.—Letter of Copernicus, 1472. 

No. 47.—William H. Prescott. 

No. 4&.—Letter of Charles the XII of Sweden. 

No. 49.—Rosseau, 1757. 

No. 50,—Letter of Hrasmus, 1476. 

No. 51.—Letter of Queen Hlizabeth to Henry IV 
of France, 

No. 52.—Christina of Sweden, 1626. 

No. 85.—Charles I. to his sister. 

No. 54.—Oliver Cromwell, 16428. 

No. 55.—Quke of Marlborough, June, 1706, 

No, 66.—Lhe Hmpress. Catherine II. of Russia, 
July, 1778. / 

No. 57.—Washington, 6th Sept, 1788, 

No, 58,—Lowis XVI, June 80, 1778, 

No, &9,—fobespierre, 

No, 60,—Napoleon ta Soult, 


4 @MESCRIPLTION OF THE PLATES. 


No. 61.—Wellington, June 19, 1818. 

No. 62.—Lord Byron, Nov. 4, 1821. 

No. 638.—Voltaire, July 29, 1757. 

No, 64,—Edmund Burke, 

No. 65.—William Pitt, March 27, 1808. 

No. 66.—Wellington, April Z1, 1884. 

The colored engraving is an illustration of the 
picture writing of the Mexicans, from Lord King's- 
borough’s great work. Lhe blue border represents a 
series of years, distinguished by the dots. Lhe com- 
partment with five dots representing the fifth year 
of the reign, that with ten the tenth, and so on. 
The pictures of the acts of the Prince being con- 
nected with each special year by means of a connect- 
ing line. The additional symbols have different 
significations—that of the flower signifying @ cal- 
amitous year, Ye. In this plate King #eamapich is 
represented in the first and sixth year of his reign; 
at the top of the page are warlike instruments, sig- 
nifying his preparation for war; the figures below, 
on the right, are the four cities— Quahnahwac, 
Mezquic, Cuitlhwac and Xochimilco—represented by 
descriptive symbols. The four heads on the left are 
those of the respective kings or chiefs of these cities, 
beheaded by #camapich, each distinguished by the 
iconegraphic symbol by which his name was expressed 
in this system of writing. 

These picture records, which would have illustrated the unknown history of 
this continent, were destroyed in ‘‘mountain heaps” by the first Spanish arch- 


bishop of Mexico—an act of fanatical vandalism equalled only by the burning 


of the Alexandrian Library, and the vast hoard of Moorish literature at Granada 
by Ximenes. | 


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Sanskrit: wer 


Greek: Mtiay/Melan/ 

Latin :— ATRAMEUTUM/Scriptorum/ 

Mediaeval Latin: ENCANSTUM 

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Hindostan “ft KALI 

Bengal: Sq} KALI 

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Malay :2\,) DAWAT 


Sapar WK I 

Java :—_ MANULYSAN 

Lgvpttan :_ BRKOST 

Coptic :_ RPHOTT 

Ancharic :_ ®?AF? 

Algerian pe SIME KH 
ASdhiopic: InP? 

Arabic: P&™ WBR,HIBR, HIBAR, 
French :_ EWORE Virion 2M, | 
German: fiuta (Tinte/ eran /INK 
Spanish : TINTA | 
fortiugese:— TINTA 

Italian :— INCHIOSTRO 
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Bohenua.— (\NGAUST 
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Silyrian: _ \NGOAS 

Danish: BLEC — 

Swedish: — BLACK 
Laplandish : BLEKK 
Greenlandish: BLEK 
lcelandish: BLEEK 

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Nelsh:._ DU, ENGE 

Guctic:  DUBHADH 

Trish: —Oub. DUBH 

Peruvian’. YANATULLPU 
Chilian . CHILLCAMOM 
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4 


